One person was confirmed dead after a building under construction collapsed at Third Avenue in Parklands, Nairobi.
Witness accounts revealed that the three-storey building collapsed at around 5:20 p.m. on Tuesday, February 11, after construction had ended and constructors left the site.
A keen look at the collapsed building showed the slab fell first while the supporting columns remained intact.
According to reports by NTV, the deceased was left behind manning the CCTV when the unfortunate accident happened leaving him trapped. It was only noticed that he had died after a friend of his went back to the site to look for him and found him trapped and dead.
Soon after, the police rushed to the site and cordoned it off while the deceased's body was transferred to the morgue awaiting an autopsy.
After the collapse, part of a multi-agency response team drawn from the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) under the Mulika Mjengo Initiative also visited the collapsed site.
The building under construction was a commercial and residential development building.
Currently, police have halted any continued construction at the site.
Meanwhile, the National Construction Authority (NCA) has unleashed a crackdown to demolish more buildings around the country, especially in Nairobi County over safety concerns.
Speaking on the state of building safety in the country, NCA Executive Director Maurice Akech revealed that the authority had embarked on a plan to demolish poorly constructed building posing health risks to Kenyans.
"There is the issue of dangerous buildings which deals with structural safety. This is a candidate for collapse, it can go down anytime. The majority of them have been demolished to restore safety and the few that have remained are still being pursued so that at the end of the day we can restore safety to the environment," Aketch revealed.
Cases of buildings collapsing in Nairobi City have been on the rise with over 87 cases recorded in the past five years leading to loss of life and property, according to NCA.
